


To Create a Home

by StarlingHawke (Bowm8935)



Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, M/M, MC/Reader should be gender neutral, Other, background saezen bc I'm trash, just a sappy couple building a house nbd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-07 00:06:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11047161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bowm8935/pseuds/StarlingHawke
Summary: Prize fic for lamalasercorn on Tumblr~After MC graduates, Saeyoung decides it's time to build a house.





	To Create a Home

Finals week: the week from hell. It’s been awhile since he was in school, but Saeyoung remembers clearly how terribly stressful it was. Not that he has any real idea how it will go for you, since you majored in architecture while his major was… classified, but he still plans to do his best to help you. Right now that means he stays out of your way except when called or when he delivers you home-cooked meals (by Saeran, not himself - somehow his brother manages to actually be able to cook whereas Saeyoung can’t do anything above microwave meals). He’ll stay a few moments to rub your shoulders or whisper words of encouragement but ultimately he’ll leave you be, knowing how important it is that you get your work done.

But it’s been two days since you last slept, as far as he knows, and he plans to force you to sleep one way or the other. He knows what it’s like all too well to go extended periods of time without giving yourself a break and he does _not_ want to watch you go through it.

Tonight Saeran cooked up some sort of chicken he’d found online and though he’d grumbled about always being the one to do all the work, he’d shoved Saeyoung your plate with the mumbled words of “make sure MC eats, okay?” Despite how much he tries to convince both of you otherwise, Saeran does have a kind heart underneath that prickly exterior and he cares just as much about your wellbeing as Saeyoung does.

Knocking softly on the door that leads into the workroom, Saeyoung enters and watches you for a moment as you draw on your tablet, no doubt with autocad pulled up as you design your final project for your academic career. You’re so lovely, from how your hair sits to the way you’re biting your lip down to your toes dangling on the floor. His heart swells and he grins widely; he’s so proud of you, of all you’ve accomplished.

“Hey, babe,” he says quietly, walking in and setting a plate on the table next to you. “Saeran tried something new tonight.” He places his own plate next to it and sits; he hasn’t eating with you the past few days and he honestly misses just being in your presence. You’re always so worried that you’re being annoying when you talk about your ideas for buildings or gush about Le Corbusier, but he’s never once felt anything other than awe when he listens. He admires you so much.

“Thanks,” you respond, distracted. He leans over just enough to catch a glimpse of what you’re doing on the tablet but it’s all foreign to him, a language he understands about as well as you understand binary; which is to say, not at all. Sighing, he pokes at his own food and considers how to broach the subject of sleep. Obviously you’re your own person and he doesn’t really have any true ability to tell you what to do; as always, your autonomy is more important than anything he thinks you should do.

Finally you set down the tablet with a heavy sigh, switching it out for the plate. “I’m sure if Saeran cooked it, it’ll be delicious.”

Pouting, Saeyoung looks at you with wide eyes. “Are you saying anything I cook _isn’t_ delicious?”

You laugh which makes him smile; success. “I love you, but you _know_ you’re a terrible cook.”

“Yeah, you’re right,” he readily agrees, grinning at you lopsidedly. “Even gods have to have a weakness, and cooking is mine.” This earns another laugh from you and he feels that familiar warmth rising up inside of him like the tide at sunset; your laugh is like music to him.

Finally the two of you start eating and exchange comments about how good the meal is - because Saeran really is a _fantastic_ cook - falling into your usual easygoing banter. He teases, you tease back, he turns everything into a show of dramatics (just to make you laugh - which you do) while you groan and tell him to act his age despite how wide your grin is. It’s almost easy for Saeyoung to forget what he’s really doing with you right now, the ultimate goal he has to get you to rest.

Almost, but not quite

“Babe,” he starts out when you’re finishing off the last bits of your food, “when was the last time you slept?”

You wave your hand at him dismissively and he frowns, anticipating that he won’t like what’s coming next. “I’ve caught a few hours here and there when I can. I _have_ to get this done.”

“You also _have_ to take care of yourself,” he replies softly, reaching out to run a hand down your arm. “Take a break, get some actual sleep. You’ll work better when you do.”

“You’re one to talk,” you snort, rolling your eyes. He cringes, but honestly, your answer doesn’t come as a surprise to him. This is definitely a situation of the pot calling the kettle black, but he doesn’t care.

Turning in his chair to face you, he sighs and grabs both of your hands, stopping you from eating for a minute. “I know. Which means I know just how shitty it is. I don’t want that for you. This project is important, right?” You nod slowly, confirming that your ability to graduate rests on it and he squeezes your hands. “Then you need to be at your best for it. Please, stop and get at least six hours, okay? That’s all I ask. Six hours and I’ll leave you alone.”

There’s silence while you stare at him and then glance at your tablet and he can see the wheels turning in your mind. “If I can do anything to help you finish it, let me know. I will do _anything_ ,” he tacks on, almost pleadingly. Your eyes shift back and forth a few times before you slump forward, resting your head on his shoulder.

“Some sleep would be nice,” you admit quietly and he lets go of your hands to wrap his arms around you.

“Then let’s go get some sleep together,” Saeyoung whispers, rubbing your back. “I’ll set an alarm for tonight and then we can get back to work.”

“We?” you ask, sitting up and raising an eyebrow at him.

Grinning, Saeyoung nods and stands, pulling you up with him. “We,” he confirms. “Whatever you need me to do, I will do it.”

\--

It’s three months after your graduation and Saeyoung’s pouring over his plans once more before approaching you. You’ve been hard at work perfecting your portfolio and considering what you’d like to do in the future and he’s been doing his best to support you. It’s no secret that Saeyoung wants to open a toy store to sell robots he creates and that he’d love for both you and Saeran to help him out, but he’s never pressed for a decision from you. The thing he craves the most in the world is for you to be happy and if that means that you don’t work with him, so be it. He’ll be there for you no matter what you decide.

That doesn’t mean he’s above asking for your help with the planning of the house he hopes to build so the three of you can move out of the bunker and live normal lives. Or, well, as normal lives as two ex-hackers and one architect/party planner can.

The kitchen table has become a study station again as you work with Saeran on some of his home-study materials he’s picked up to try to make up for the lack of education in his life. Saeyoung allows himself a minute to stand in the doorway, leaning against the frame and just taking in the sight of his love and his sibling quietly pouring over books together, him doing what he can on his own and you only helping when needed. Despite your rather unfortunate introductions, the two of you get on rather harmoniously and Saeyoung thanks God every morning and night for that blessing.

Twin sense activates as Saeran glances up to see Saeyoung watching and rolls his eyes, sitting back in his chair. Crossing his arms over his chest, he raises one pierced eyebrow. “Did you need something?”

Saeyoung laughs and pushes himself upright, finally entering the kitchen and making his way around the table to you. “Just wanted to borrow the love of my life for a while, if that’s okay, brother dearest~” he says in a sing-song voice, leaning down to place a kiss on your cheek. Saeran huffs and stands, grumbling as he walks away but Saeyoung knows that deep down he really doesn’t mind. Saeran wouldn’t be Saeran if he didn’t give him a hard time.

Moving to stand fully behind you, Saeyoung hoops his arms around your neck and drops his chin to rest on your shoulders, swinging the two of you back and forth in a slow and steady rhythm. Laughing softly, you let him, swaying along and letting your head rest against his. His heart feels so full in this moment that he almost forgets why he’s here.

Almost, but not quite.

He drops the rolled up papers on the table in front of you and presses his lips to your cheek once more before pulling away to sit in the chair Saeran vacated, grinning at you proudly. As you reach out and slowly unravel the papers before you his smile falters; he’s proud of his work, yes, but he’s also well aware that he is not the one out of the two of you who knows how a house should go together. There’s likely a lot that needs fixed, that will need changed for it to be a viable structure, but that’s why he’s brought it to you. He hopes that you’ll help him.

Sucking in a breath, you carefully look over the top sheet which shows a semi-detailed plan of the first floor of a house complete with attached garage and toy store out front. He’s placed the kitchen, floor room (because even though he cares little for tradition, you do and he wants to respect you), laundry room, dining room and living room along with a bathroom and a pantry here. He waits with bated breath as you move on to the next sheet - the second floor - that shows four bedrooms and what appears to be a study/office along with a master bathroom and smaller washroom.

The third sheet is smaller, a second floor to the garage that details a workshop for him. Simple enough. But the fourth sheet… the fourth sheet is what makes you blink in surprise and him suck in a breath.

On the third floor of the house, Saeyoung’s designed an entirely separate apartment. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, eat-in kitchen, living area, laundry room. A place for Saeran to call his own while still being near. There’s a door to the outside on the front that leads to a set of stairs to the ground. In the back is a small balcony and another set of stairs, this one also making a stop at the second floor of the main house in case anyone wants to go between the two.

Saeyoung feels like he might pass out by the time you finally turn to him. “You made this?” you ask softly, eyes searching his face. He nods but doesn’t say anything, completely unprepared for when you pull him into a hug. “It’s amazing. It needs some modifications and I might have to shift a few things, but I can make it happen.”

“Ahh, you’re the best, babe,” he says, wrapping his arms around you and squeezing. “Is it something you like, though?” As always, his primary concern is whether or not _you_ would be happy with it, because he can live with things changing.

You nod enthusiastically, a glint of excitement in your eyes. “Yes! I love it. Have you told Saeran, yet?”

“Yes… and no.” Scratching at the side of his face, Saeyoung laughs softly. “He knows I was thinking of building him an apartment but he hasn’t seen it yet. I didn’t honestly expect him to leave…?”

With a grin, you snap up your phone and shoot him a text. Saeran reenters the kitchen so fast that Saeyoung raises his eyebrows, moderately jealous. Saeran never responds that quickly to him… but now is hardly the time for this. You gesture at the plans with a wide grin on your face and Saeran saunters over, eyes taking in the pictures in front of him with almost a bored expression on his face. One hand toying with his lip piercings, Saeran stays silent for a while before shrugging and saying, “looks cool.”

“That’s it?” Saeyoung blurts out, having expected something, anything more than just a two word reaction. “Nothing else to say?”

Saeran shrugs again. “I’ll live there.” Then he turns and leaves again.

Saeyoung looks at you and you look at him and you both burst into laughter. “Shut _up_ , idiots!” calls Saeran from down the hallway which only causes the both of you to laugh even harder.

When the laughter dies down, you rest your head on his shoulder and he slings an arm around yours, tugging you a little closer into his side. “Give me a couple of weeks and I’ll get the plans drawn up,” you say and he kisses your forehead.

“I’ll wait as long as it takes, and then we can get started.”

\-----

One thing Saeyoung didn’t account for was the fact that out of the three of you, no one really had the skill to actually _build_ what he had designed.

The plans are fixed and the new property bought, so all that’s left is to purchase the materials and pay the workers. But when you bring up the list of contractors you’ve heard good things about, Saeyoung waffles for a moment.

“I thought we could build this together?” he says weakly, feeling a small portion of his dream tear off and float away into the wind. There’s no fight in his voice because he knows it’s not possible, not if you’ve already looked into hiring people. Just like him, you like to do things with your own two hands when it’s an option. It’s one of the many things he loves about you.

You sigh and place a hand on top of his, wrapping your fingers around his palm and squeezing. “Not with all of the extra things we’ve both put in as things we want,” you say kindly. He knows you’re letting him down as gently as you can and he appreciates it. “If we’d chosen a simpler design, maybe. But since when have we ever done things the simple way?”

That drags a chuckle out of Saeyoung and he nods, placing his other hand on top of yours now. “That’s true, I guess. Okay. Let’s choose our fighters!”

 

  
It’s a little more pricey than Saeyoung expects, but he’s put enough in savings in anticipation for this to cover it. Saeran insists on chipping in with some of the money he’s made between working in the art store and helping design/paint sets for Zen’s musicals (“If I’m to have my own place here, shouldn’t I pay for it too?”) and then spends a lot of his free time planning how to decorate a place that’s truly his and his alone. Saeyoung tries to throw in some ideas but they’re mostly shot down - unsurprising, though disappointing - and he finds himself incredibly curious as to how the apartment is going to turn out. Saeran’s come into himself a lot since he was rescued and is constantly surprising Saeyoung; re-bleaching his hair, getting all those piercings, returning to a punk-ish style of dress, Zen…

It doesn’t matter, as long as he’s happy and safe, Saeyoung will support him no matter what. Even when Saeran says he's seriously considering getting a pet snake.

Okay then.

Saeyoung takes on the odd hacking job to make sure that he’s still bringing in money while everything is being built but he spends a lot of his free time working on designs for the robots he hopes to sell. Currently he’s working to improve the programming of the original robot dog - no fire this time - that he’d built so long ago as well as Meowy. It’s a challenge, figuring out how to make them more kid-friendly while still keeping them ahead of everything else on the market. Still, it’s a challenge he welcomes. Saeran offers his input occasionally, usually as an off-handed comment as he passes by and sees Saeyoung struggling.

Sometimes it feels like Saeyoung is working two jobs with how much time and energy the two tasks consume, and it certainly doesn’t help that hacking often still requires him to be awake at odd hours. You find him asleep at his computer or at his desk with a screwdriver still in hand more and more often, ushering him to bed even as he meekly protests. It’s wearing on him and you.

You try to convince him that he doesn’t need to have everything set in stone before the house is done; it’s not a requirement for the store to have its grand opening immediately after you move in.

“I know,” he says, scrubbing a hand tiredly through his hair and looking at you with exhaustion etched into his features. There are dark bags under his eyes and all he wants to do is kiss you and go to bed, in that order. “But I want to work on them. They’re reminding me that I won’t always be so dirty, that someday I won’t be a cockroach anymore.” He needs that reminder a lot, especially when his depression creeps up in the middle of the night after you’re asleep. It’s easy to fall into the black hole of believing he’s worthless and never going to amount to anything, that he’ll never be good enough for you, so whenever he feels himself going down that path, he starts to build something. It’s almost like the old days, and sometimes it’s almost enough to make him forget everything he’s failed at.

Almost, but not quite.

You sigh and pull him into a hug. “I love you. Just… don’t work yourself to death, please.”

“I won’t.” Saeyoung’s arms wrap around you too and for a moment the world is reduced to just the two of you, holding each other. “We have to face the future together, right?”

“Yes,” you agree, laughing softly. “ _We_ do.”

~~~~

Roughly eight months after the contractors were first contacted Saeyoung stands before the completed house with his arm around both you and Saeran. It looks… normal, something he wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to achieve and yet here it is, a _normal_ house (at least, on the outside) in front of him with a garage and a yard. It’s feels almost surreal, like it can’t quite be reality and that if he pinches himself he’ll wake up, disappointed and alone, still under the agency’s thumb with Vanderwood breathing down his neck.

Almost, but not quite.

“Yippee!” he yells suddenly, dropping his arms and bolting toward the house without a thought of what either your or Saeran are thinking. His heart is pounding in his ears and he’s filled with such a rush of excitement that it feels like he might burst from it. Of course he’s seen the inside before, he’s stopped by to answer questions and to direct the workers as needed, but this time feels different because he’s actually here to _stay_. To live here, with you.

The first stop on the new-home tour is his store. Saeyoung opens the door carefully and steps inside, biting his lip as he looks around. It’s all sleek and grey, modern, fit for a shop that sells top-of-the-line robotic toys for all ages. He runs his fingers over the shelves, the glass cases, the counter at the front. It’s _real_ and he finds himself taking off his glasses to wipe at his eyes with the back of his hand. Another dream has come true, another thing he doesn’t deserve but somehow managed to get anyway.

He doesn’t hear when you enter, too distracted with the images in his mind of his creations lining the walls, of kids and adults alike coming in and finding enjoyment in what they find. When your arms slide around his waist he jumps a little in surprise but quickly places his hands on top of yours.

“What do you think?” he asks tentatively. You’ve seen the plans and you had your input on the rest of the place but this, this is his baby. Viewing a building on a blueprint is different from seeing it before you, and he finds himself desperate for your approval.

“It’s perfect,” you answer, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Saeyoung grins and turns around, chasing that kiss with one of his own, his chapped lips moving softly against yours. For a moment there’s only the sound of your soft breathing, the rustle of clothing and his own heartbeat.

Then the sound of an engine pulling into the driveway interrupts you and he pulls back, cocking his head to the side and huffing out laughter when he hears Saeran’s voice talking in that animated way he does only with you and Zen.

“Not even here for an hour before his boyfriend is over,” Saeyoung says with fake exasperation, shaking his head. “Well, at least they have their own _soundproofed_ floor this time.”

You laugh, playfully shoving at him. “Sae _young_ , you _encouraged_ that relationship. It’s your fault Zen’s over all the time.”

His smile morphs into a grin and he laughs, stepping back to give you a flourished bow. “Yes, thank you for acknowledging my amazing ability to promote healthy relationships~”

“God, you’re incorrigible.” Waving a hand at him in amusement, you turn on your heel to head toward the door connecting the shop to the house. “I want to go see the rest now.”

He jogs behind you, taking your hand as you walk up the steps to the first floor of the house, entering the small room that also holds one of the doors from the outside. Nothing special in and of itself, the wall is lined with a few hooks for coats and some cubbies for shoes, hats or whatever else you two decide should go in them. The next room is the kitchen, and Saeyoung jumps through in front of you, turning around to face you and grabbing your wrists.

“First on our tour is the immaculate kitchen of the Choi household, filled with everything you could possibly need for your culinary desires~” He grins widely, eyes never leaving your face. The chance of him running into something from not looking is not enough to draw his gaze away; he could look at you all day and never grow tired of it. The floor is a dark colored wood, the walls a soft creme color that contrasts the dark brown cabinets and grey appliances. He can’t resist dropping a wrist for a moment to reach out and touch the beautiful ivory marble countertop, the smoothness of it satisfying to touch.

The dining room is connected via the open floor plan and on the other side of it lies the living area, a large, plush sectional inviting. The wooden floor continues in both of these rooms, the dining room table and chairs dark brown with white accents.

The floor room is separated from the kitchen and dining room by a single large archway. Tears prick at your eyes and Saeyoung notices, pausing a moment to reach up and gently wipe them away. “Still a little more to go,” he says softly, pulling you along to the living room to show you the laundry room and, beyond that, the bathroom.

Upstairs lies the bedrooms, study and master bathroom and he takes you through each one, slowly. The study is filled with bookshelves, a desk and a few plush chairs; he’s already started lining the shelves with some of your books. He watches your face eagerly as you continue, thrilled to see the happiness taking residence there. When you arrive in the master bedroom he directs you over to the bed and pulls you down to lie next to him, wrapping his arms around you.

“Welcome home, babe,” he whispers in your ear. He feels like the luckiest man in the world right now; here he is, about to start living a _normal_ life in the house built for both of you, with you. Soon he’ll be able to open his own business, a _legal_ one where he doesn’t hurt anyone, only makes them happy. “We finally made it.”

You sigh and close your eyes, smiling when he softly kisses both your eyelids. “Yes. We did.”

**Author's Note:**

> Did you like it? Did you love it? Did you... *gasp* hate it? Let me know! I'm always open for reviews, comments and helpful criticism.  
> I'm here to grow. :)
> 
> You can also find me on Tumblr as [cutiesaeran](http://cutiesaeran.tumblr.com/) or twitter [@MysticHawke](https://twitter.com/MysticHawke/)!


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